When an individual repents from his sins, turns to God and heartily believe in Jesus confessing Him to be his personal Lord and Savior, and accepts Jesus’ death on the cross for his sins, he is born-again; his innate sin nature inherited from Adam that induces him to sin and relish sinning is destroyed with the blood of Jesus and entirely removed. He receives a new nature –the righteous nature of Jesus. The possession of this new nature removes the taste and desire to sin in him. Sinning becomes a great dislike and a new hunger, zeal and desire to live holy and heed the teachings of the Bible captures and saturates his heart. He suddenly will begin living a different life from the former life he lived; his goals, desires, values, interests, likes, dislikes, focus, changes.
More so, the day he is born again, the Holy Spirit comes into him and indwells him, his body becomes the temple of God and an abode of the Trinity. From Bible we understand that God is holy and lives in a holy place, this understanding makes a Christian (someone who has been born-again) strive to keep his body holy which is the dwelling place of God, and to live a holy life generally. One of the principal reasons we are given the Holy Spirit immediately we’re born again is to enable and empower us to live holy lives. 1 Thessalonians 4:7-8 says “God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.” So in living holy lives, we do not rely on our own strength to live holy but derive strength and help from the Holy Spirit daily to live holy. Romans 8:12-13 says this “So then, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but not to our flesh [our human nature, our worldliness, our sinful capacity], to live according to the [impulses of the] flesh [our nature without the Holy Spirit]— for if you are living according to the [impulses of the] flesh, you are going to die. But if [you are living] by the [power of the Holy] Spirit you are habitually putting to death the sinful deeds of the body, you will [really] live forever.”Amplified Bible
Now as touching addiction to lust, watching of porn and masturbation, we must know that even after we’re born again, the temptation to engage in these vices will still come until we've consciously dealt with them, but the difference now that we’re born again is -we can overcome the temptations and refuse to yield ourselves to these vices because of the power of the Holy Spirit at our disposal. The temptation, however, will come often if an individual is newly born again in a bid to take him back to being a slave to sin, but as he grows and matures as a Christian, continuously resisting the sexual temptations, the temptation dwindles and dwindles until he’s totally free from the addiction (s).
Lust breeds watching of porn and masturbation, and masturbation and watching of porn go hand in hand, whoever is addicted to watching porn will definitely masturbate. Why? What you see or behold as you watch porn, you will definitely want to try out or practice immediately; you cannot resist the compelling power of porn to immediately gratify yourself sexually by either touching and stimulating your genitals or engaging in sexual intercourse with the opposite sex because you’re already sexually aroused/excited.
Sexual sins most often are not immediately overcome the day we become born again or immediately after being born-again. This is because man is a spirit, he has a soul and lives in a body; when a man is born-again, his spirit is what is revived, his corrupted body along with his soul (mind, will and emotions) is unaffected, so the body still has its former desires but the desires of the spirit has changed; the body stills desires sinful earthly pleasures, but the spirit now desires heavenly pleasures. You’re now to consciously mortify the misdeeds of the body by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the complete victory over most sexual sins that have become a habit is a gradual process which can however be quickened with aggressive fight against it. Please know that in your efforts to overcome these vices, there will be times you’ll fall, don’t expect that you’ll never fall, you will, but when you do, rise immediately and continue fighting till your victory is established. You will fall often when you newly begin to fight these addictions like a baby learning to walk, but as you continue rising and fighting, you’ll fall less as you make great progress, and as a baby progresses and learns to walk perfectly without falling again, so you will eventually overcome the addictions. Addictions are habits, habits take years to be formed and so often will take time to go but with the Holy Spirit, alongside determination and commitment, every addiction can be really overcome in no long time.
Moreover, we realize from Bible that it takes renewing of the mind to overcome most sexual sins. Romans 12:2 says “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but BE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.” And Ephesians 4:22-23 says “You were taught to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; TO BE RENEWED IN THE SPIRIT OF YOUR MINDS;”. Your mind is a part of your unregenerate soul, so, all the rubbish and junks it was fed with as a sinner is still there; those junks must, however, be totally removed and replenished with godly things. The mind from Scriptures is renewed with the word of God by the help of the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit renews our mind with the Word of God we read and study daily. By reading, studying and spending time meditating on God’s Word, your mind is being automatically renewed -old sinful thoughts & images, sinful desires, wrong beliefs & values and sinful inclinations are removed and replaced with righteous thoughts, images, desires, beliefs, ideas ,values and inclinations. This mind renewal is done consistently and continuously immediately after being born-again. It is the intake of God’s Word that automatically removes, eradicates and erases all immoral thoughts, sexually immoral images, pictures and videos from your mind. This is the first important step to your victory, without it, no progress whatsoever will be made because if your mind is not renewed and reloaded with new materials that are godly, the old immoral junks will remain in your mid, and giving in to temptations to watch porn or masturbate will be so easy; you can even masturbate without physically watching porn as the previous porn images in your mind starts replaying once you’re being tempted -forcefully compelling you to masturbate, fornicate or find porn to watch.
Let’s go over some truths about Lust, Porn and Masturbation
The root cause of masturbation and watching of porn is LUST- which God is highly against. “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, LUST, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”Colossians 3:5. When someone is overcome by lust for an individual, he/she strongly desires to have sex with the person according to Matthew 5:28, and when the urge can’t be immediately satisfied, the person resorts to masturbation where they imagine having sex with whoever they’re lusting after. Moreover, before one decides to watch porn, lust first triggers him/her to engage in the act; lust for the seeming pleasure derived from watching porn and lust for the porn actors.
Watching porn opens door for demonic attacks, demonic possession, nightmares and having sex with strange people in the dream.
Lust, porn and masturbation triggers inability to reason soundly, weakness of the body and fatigue, restlessness, fear, having an unproductive mind, loss of consciousness, stagnation, disappointments, failures, limitation, guilt, shame, self-hatred, self-condemnation, inability to do unique things in life, being unproductive and lots more.
The judgment God will pass over fornicators and adulterers is the same judgment He’ll pass on those given to lust, masturbation and watching of porn as they’re all sexual sins.
Masturbation and watching of porn is not only a sin against God but a sin against one’s body. “Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.” 1 Corinthians 6:18. So, sexual sin negatively affects your body.
Medical researchers have helped discover some of the terrible dangers of masturbation and watching of porn alongside their negative effects on the body. You can read it up clicking on the links below: